Doctors call off strike; minister assures to accept demands

Mumbai: The Medical Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) today called off their indefinite strike across the state after being assured by the state government that their demands would be fulfilled within a fortnight.

“We had a late night meeting with State Medical Education minister Jitendra Awhad and he assured us that the government is ready to accept all our demands within 15 days. Hence, we have agreed to call off our strike for now,” MARD President Santosh Wakchaure told.

Around 4,000 resident doctors across the state yesterday had decided to go on an indefinite strike from today to protest against state government’s “failure” to fulfil their long pending demands, including proper bond service strategies like time period, speciality services, and creating posts for senior resident doctors in both non-clinical and para-clinical branches.”

Wakchaure said though doctors have called off the strike, they “will not hesitate” to review their decision if their demands are not met within the stipulated time period.

“As far as possible, we are trying that this does not happen for the sake of the health of our patients,” he said.

Wakchaure said that the state government should ensure that proper bond service strategies are implemented.

“We want proper work schedule for doctors. We also want the government to provide speciality service mechanisms in government hospitals so that every patient can be treated,” he added.

The association also demanded that senior resident posts should be created for non-clinical and para-clinical branches and they should be considered in the bonded service.

“We have also demanded a special medical officer post for all branches and people from the Other Backward Class (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) should be given treatment free of cost,” Wakchaure said.